


∞

by MisterPseudonymous



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Dark, Gen, Mindfuck, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:58:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5663692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterPseudonymous/pseuds/MisterPseudonymous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the shadows, something stirs. <br/>Sasuke is missing. <br/>Itachi sits in a cell. <br/>Sakura works against the odds. <br/>Hinata takes pictures. <br/>Naruto mourns a friendship. <br/>In the shadows, something stirs—luring in more players to a game with no rules.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Prologue is a poem. Deal.

｢Prologue｣

One night I spared a glance  
Out of the corner of my eye  
And spotted a shadow  
Peaking from behind my curtain  
Quickly, it returned to the  
Obscurity that birthed it  
If I had gone to inquire  
I knew it would have been gone  
So I returned to my duties  
And let that shadow linger  
As it was, that nameless thing had  
Infinite possibilities  
And could be anything  
But to search for it and name it  
Would define it and constrict it  
Thus I am content with the shadow  
Remaining as something unknown


	2. One:Shadows:Thrumming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pilgrimage halted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The direction and concept of the story has changed three times since I first wrote it, under a different title, in 2006.

**∞  
** **Infinite:Finite:Infinity  
｢One:Shadows:Thrumming｣**

She felt like a pilgrim. The engine _thrummed_ with power, nearly numbing her fingertips, its roaring a wild protest to the empty road she traveled. Walled in by trees and shadows, the consuming dark stole the color of the leaves and brush, making her ponder what this very place would be in a few hours. Her foot never leaving the gas, she recklessly raced nothing. She felt like a pilgrim going to a holy land.

The phone rang, its suddenness more shocking than the first booming thunderclap of a storm. She lost control of the car for but a second, nearly crashing. The phone rang still, louder, as she took deep breaths to calm her frayed nerves. She grabbed the receiver, adjusting it to her ear, she spoke, “Haruno.”

She could hear the disbelief in his pauses; the judgment in his monotone.

“No I haven’t checked. Gimme a sec, I will right now.” Adjusting the dials, she turned on the terminal built into her dashboard. She navigated the police BBS subconsciously, more distracted by the flashing hazard lights recoloring her skin a curious shade of yellow. Such distractions, however, abruptly terminated as her green eyes locked on to the thread title, no doubts what her partner wanted her to see.

_Uchiha Sasuke, Male Aged 21, Missing._

“Yes,” her voice quivered. How unprofessional. He did not comment on her slip. “Yes, we should.”

She kept silent for the longest while, contemplating the best way to phrase her next statement without sounding like a fool. “I don’t know where I am.”


	3. One:Shadows:Buzzing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A life spared...

**∞  
** **Infinite:Finite:Infinity  
｢One:Shadows:Buzzing｣**

Sasuke never before felt such loathing to an inanimate object. The fluorescent lighting _buzzed_ , always incessantly, aggregating into the convoluted jumble of his psyche. Instead, his dark gaze fell heavy, on his brother behind bars, contained like an animal. The familiar hatred, a warm solace by comparison alone.

Itachi languidly leafed through an aged book, oblivious to his younger brother’s roiling stress and rage—unaware that no guard bothered to check for a concealed weapon. 

The light, flickering momentarily, bathed them in a sterile glow. Sasuke pretended that the monster before him was a stranger. How easy to end the life of someone unrelated…

“Why…?” _Why did you kill them?_

He closed the book gracefully, long fingers resting on the faded cover. He smiled gently as he said, “It was what you wanted, little brother.”

Trembling violently, Uchiha Sasuke left the prison and wandered the dark streets; all the while wondering whether he did not end Itachi’s life for Itachi’s sake or for his own. So lost in his thoughts, he never heard the mechanical clicking or the flash of the camera taking a picture.


	4. One:Shadows:Ticking

∞  
 **Infinite:Finite:Infinity  
｢One:Shadows:Ticking｣**

 

She hesitated, rubbing her hands nervously. The timer _ticked_ away like a countdown to her personal doomsday clock that only she could hear. Fear grossly distorted her perceptions of the broken light post, making it twice as tall and twice as perilous. The girl inhaled frigid air, steeling her resolve.

Hinata climbed the post, ever grateful that people avoided the streets that night, and thus no one to witness her irresponsibly. Even through her heavy coat, the gelid metal burned her flesh, but the camera fixed at the end of the lamp post was almost in reach. Edging the final distance, she cheered triumphantly the the stoic dark when, at last, the camera was hers!

The timer went off—the crudely constructed actuator clamped around the shutter button, immortalizing her victory on film. Hinata, perched atop the bar alone, mulled over a way to get down without hurting herself.


	5. One:Shadows:Let it Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A man in a room, as still as the dead.

∞  
 **Infinite:Finite:Infinity  
｢One:Shadows:Let it Be｣**

His room, a grave for the living. In a bed with white sheets too heavy, he never stirred or or expressed a complaint. But the nurses, oh their voices, gossiped and whispered and uttered words of tragedy and pity—the story becoming more contrived and maladroit each passing day. However, he failed to correct their fiction.

_He had been stranded in a cave.  
He had fought a bear; a matter of self-preservation.  
His best friend had tried to kill him due to a love triangle out of control.  
He had been mining for gold—to pay for his sick mother’s medicine—when the cave-in occurred._

No friend, relative, or ill mother visited, and the man, bandaged and comatose, dreamed of better days—one could only hope.

His hospital room, a grave memorializing a man still breathing.

_He had murdered his two friends._

“Let him be,” the doctor berated, and, for now, the cruel voices ceased.


	6. One:Shadows:Let it Fester

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jiraiya fears the lingering shadows.

∞  
 **Infinite:Finite:Infinity  
｢One:Shadows:Let it Fester｣**

He typed fervently—every press of the key solidifying his focus on the formulation of words and thoughts and structure. All of the lights alit, keeping stretching, grasping shadows at bay. However, that which lurked in obscurity would not be thwarted. The lights, his aegis, flickered momentarily, and the dark laughed as the nervous sweat dampened his brow.

He typed frantically, but the light kept him safe still. _Thrumming. Buzzing. Ticking. Let it fester. Let it be. To glimpse the shadows is is to blind your soul. Let it fester un_ —

The piercing, reverberating booming of a grandiose explosion halted his hand, hovering over the typewriter. And then the the lights went out. Jiraiya could feel the darkness caressing his pallid skin as he fled into the night, his small typewriter painfully crushed to his chest. Thoughts of Ichiraku and how illuminated it would surely be, gave him the courage he desperately needed.


	7. One:Shadows:Scent of a Memory Repressed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He is in love.

∞  
 **Infinite:Finite:Infinity  
｢One:Shadows:Scent of a Memory Repressed｣**

From the car window, her gaze followed the complex’s prefabricated ascent. Sakura’s, albeit disorganized, leather address book reconfirmed that, yes, her destination stood immobile before her—never moving an inch for the last two years. _Stop delaying this, damn it!_

She adjusted her wool scarf, only locking her car as an offhand afterthought. She chose to pay attention to the little sounds, the soul of the night, instead of agonizing the words to say to _him_. Dogs bayed, elongated and primal. She could hear trash bags being torn, their contents becoming displaced as sort of rodent rummaged. As Sakura walked down the dirty hallway, she picked up fragmented conversation, whispers, blaring adverts from TV sets.

The light above his door was off, but she could still make out the rusted, crooked 108. An overwhelming scent of tobacco flooded her sense, and her hand hovered on the precipice of knocking. It took several minutes to understand why she halted. Her mo—no mentor—no former mentor smoked the same brand. _Just knock already, damn it!_

The door opened only a smidge, just enough to see a fraction of his face. Even in the negligible lighting, Sakura could tell that the bushy-eyebrowed man was clearly not the man she was searching for. “Sorry, I thought my friend still lived here. Take care, sir.”

He nodded, the only indication that he acknowledged her. The door closed and relocked with a resounding click. She huffed in resignation, speaking to no one, “Guess I should get back to work.”

Haruno Sakura left the apartment building, heart heavy with dismay, whilst Rock Lee’s heart raced in the throes of love.


End file.
